Women constitute to over 57% of unemployed in Azerbaijan - MP

"One of the areas, where gender inequality is most vivid, is the labor market. The number of unemployed women in the world is significantly higher than that of men," Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee on Labor and Social Policy of Azerbaijan MP Musa Guliyev said at the conference, entitled “The role of civil society in promoting gender equality and women's rights”, organized by the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, Report informs.

Some 51.8% of men and 48.2% of women of the economically active population of Azerbaijan are employed, he said. Some 57.5% of the unemployed are women.

“In terms of wages, one can also speak about labor discrimination against women. Globally, male labor is valued at $1, and female labor at 77 cents. Some 77% of unpaid working hours, such as housework, running the family economy, caring for family members, come to the share of women.

“The average salary of women in Azerbaijan is only 63.3% of the average salary of men. This indicator is 47.6% in scientific and technical activities, 59.2% in financial and insurance activities, 63.8% in manufacturing, 63.9% in health and social services, and 79% in education.

“Despite sufficient support for women's entrepreneurship in the country, the number of women entrepreneurs is still 3.7 times less than men. If 836,679 men are engaged in individual entrepreneurship, then there are 225,858 women employed in this sector.

“I would like to give a few examples of individual business sectors: men are 25.3 times more than women employed in construction, 4.8 times in the processing industry, 5.4 times in tourism and public catering, and 3.7 times in trade and transport, 1.8 times in health and social services. And only in the education sector 1.8 times more women than men are employed."